Canadian author Jon Evans answers questions about writing, his
experiences and his recent book “Dark Places” which is published in Canada
by Harper Collins Canada. Dark Places is also published in USA and UK (Published
in the UK as “Trail of the Dead”) as well as translated into
Dutch and German.
Where did the idea for Dark Places come from? I’m Australian
so inevitably Dark Places made me think of the serial killer who preyed
on backpackers in the Belangalo Forest, south of Sydney. Did that or
other crimes
make you think about how vulnerable backpackers were?
There’s actually a very brief reference to that in the book - I forget
where exactly - but the original idea stemmed from black comedy. I was on a truck
trip much like the one the protagonist took across West Africa. This was, sheesh,
seven years ago. Tempers occasionally flare on such a trip, as you might imagine,
and one of the running jokes became how easy it would be for one of us to bump
another off, cross a border the next day, and poof, you’re gone. And I
realized: it really would be the perfect murder. I didn’t sit down and
write it until three years later, but that was the initial spark.
Dark Places vividly describes a number of exotic locations but still keeps the
story moving at a rapid pace. Did you have to think about balancing the amount
of description against the needs of the plot or did it all just fall into place?
Er. I’d like to say it was science, but really it was gut instinct. I
put a lot of thought into this for my next book, but Dark Places was written
without
much thoughtful analysis; the first draft took all of 3 weeks, and the final
version is longer but otherwise not all that different.
You did a great job of explaining Paul’s investigations on the
Internet without being boring or making computer-illiterate readers feel stupid.
Was this
difficult?
My computer-illiterate friends were a great help in this. :) It was hard, being
a fairly hardcore techie myself, to know when I had gone too far. One of the
things that is different about the earliest version is that there is more technical
bumpf in it; thankfully, a friend who read that warned me of it, and I made a
point of getting rid of extraneous stuff.
Although to be honest I think it isn’t so much that the technical stuff
is inherently hard; it’s that most authors who write about it don’t
know what the hell they’re talking about and so they can’t explain
it clearly. (I could name names here, but I’ll refrain...) I had the
advantage of working in the field for many years.
Do you plan your novels in detail before you start writing or do you
find out what’s going to happen as you write?
I come up with an overall structure, but I try to avoid plotting everything
out in advance - then it’s less fun to write. And one of my favourite things
is when characters appear out of nowhere and write themselves into the story
you thought didn’t have room for them. It doesn’t happen often, but
it’s great when it does.
Who are your favourite writers? Are there any who have influenced you or
that you particularly admire?
Jeez. I’m not sure email provides enough space. :)
I don’t actually read that much in the mystery/thriller field, but
the two writers I really admire in it are Martin Cruz Smith and John
Le Carre.
I cut my literary teeth on science fiction, so a lot of its authors
are influences; Robert Heinlein, Gene Wolfe, Harlan Ellison, Samuel
Delany, Ursula Le Guin, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson.
Otherwise - Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, Rohinton Mistry, Salman
Rushdie, Mordecai Richler, John McPhee are a few names that leap to
mind immediately.
Having
written about how risky backpacking can be, are you a cautious
traveller? Or do you still manage to think that nothing bad will happen
to you?
I’m not that cautious (I did, after all, just spend a week in Iraq).
In my experience, most fear of the unknown is unjustified. I keep my day
pack close and my street smarts on high alert, and so far that’s
served to keep me out of any serious trouble. :) On your website you
mention that
you wrote your first novel when you were fifteen and made several
more attempts before writing Dark Places. What was it like to have
Dark Places published?
It was surreal. The first time I saw it in the bookstore I couldn’t
shake the feeling it was some kind of practical joke. I’ve asked other
writer friends if the “impostor syndrome” ever goes away.
It seems the answer is no, alas.
Of course, the actual publication is just the culmination of
a more-than-a-year-long process, so you do get used to the notion
as
you go along. The Big
Break was getting the book deal, which was very exciting; of
course, it happened
two days before my 30th birthday skydiving expedition, so that
was exciting too...
I came across an online review that said that
Dark Places would be “difficult
to beat if he ever writes a second ”. Did you feel under pressure
when you were writing your second novel, Blood Price?
Kind of. Not so much “beating what I’ve done before” but
writing a novel under deadline pressure, and making it good. The actual
writing, on a sentence level, is (to me) noticeably better than that of
Dark Places. It helped that DP was the fifth, rather than first, book I’d
written, so I knew that writing another novel was not all that intimidatingly
big a deal.
Blood Price also features Paul Wood. Were you planning
a series from the start?
“Planning” is a strong word. :) I had a vague image of a series, and
I may yet go back to Paul and Talena (Book 3, which I’ve finished
the second draft of, features entirely separate characters). I think it
was also that I wanted to avoid the “sophomore slump” didn’t
want to take too many chances with my second book. Plus, it’s
just fun to get into his head and write from his somewhat snarky POV.
Tell us about Blood Price.
I, er, ah, hmm. I guess you want more than the basic boilerplate
stuff you can already find on Amazon...Well. It begins with Paul
in rough
shape; broke, unemployed, depressed, fighting with Talena, on
a disastrous vacation
to Bosnia (her mother country). Then, in an attempt to rescue
Talena’s
sister from a bad situation, he gets involved with a group of people
smugglers to get her out of the country and into America - but the smugglers
have
dark secrets too.
The trouble with thrillers is that you can’t really talk about them
:) so that’s all I’m going to say except that I’m very,
very pleased with Blood Price, particularly the last sixty pages. (And the
character of Arwin, who was one of those people who write themselves in
unexpectedly.)
What’s next? Do you have further adventure in mind
for Paul Wood?
I’m not sure. Book 3, tentatively titled Black Bloc, will
be coming out next year (at least in the UK - haven’t signed
with a US/Canadian publisher yet), and will be an entirely separate
story. Book 4 will take
place largely in Africa, and may or may not be a Paul and Talena
book; I’ll
know more after I return to Africa for a couple of months of “research” this
autumn.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Kate Charlton is a vetern Spinetingler staff member. An avid mystery
fan,
Kate enjoys reading works by new authors when she isn't busy with
her studies. She has two cats and lives in southern Australia.
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